Manage your subscription

Satellites help explain Greenland ice loss mystery

A NEW approach to measuring glacier behaviour can keep track of the rapidly changing erosion of ice in south-east Greenland.

Earlier studies focused on two large, rapidly thinning glaciers, but these actually contribute relatively little to total ice loss. Satellite measurements of the island’s gravitational field imply a much greater loss than the large glaciers alone can account for.

Now a team led by Ted Scambos of the University of Colorado in Boulder has resolved the disparity by looking at a wider range of glaciers. They used laser altimetry to measure the thinning of inland ice, plus satellite images that …